Biography

After a short period in Manchester, deciding that the possibilit of a career in
librarianship was not for him, Alan Wilkinson moved to Leeds in 1975 to undertake a
Fine Arts degree, concentrating on painting. Shortly after completing his degree he
began playing the alto saxophone and joined the group Crow with Mathew Coe (aka Xero
Slingsby), Richard Ward, and long-time associate, drummer
Paul Hession. Following a short tour of Belgium and Holland,
he decided to quit painting and concentrate on the saxophone. In 1979 he formed the group
Art, Bart & Fargo with Hession and tenor sax player Pete Malham,experimenting with
playing a wide range of other instruments, mainly percussion, and mixing composition
with pure improvisation. After playing in England, Belgium and Germany the trio disbanded
after three years.

In 1982 Wilkinson attended the Improvised Music Summer School in South Wales and this
introduced him to musicians such as Peter Brötzmann,
Barry Guy, Fred Van Hove, Keith
Tippett, Phil Wachsmann and Radu Malfatti
among others. This led directly to gigs on the London improvised music scene, a trio
with Paul Hession and Japanese pianist Akemi Kuniyoshi, and many gigs with drummer
Steve Hubback in a wide variety of combinations. In 1983, in duo with Hession, he
appeared at the 10th annual Free Music festival in Antwerp, Belgium and at the Holland
Art Initiative in Eindhoven. The same year he was among the original organisers of the
Termite Club in Leeds, specialising in improvised and experimental music and performing
arts. A trio with Steve Noble and Tony Moore existed from 1985 to 1988, having toured
in Britain, Belgium, Holland and Denmark and in 1985 Wilkinson also joined the large
improvising ensemble The Ubiquity Orchestra. From 1987 to 1989 Wilkinson's activities
included a widely toured quartet with Willi Kellers, Christoph Winckel and Alex Maguire
(through to 1992); a tour
of England and Wales with Phil Durrant, Thebe Lipere, Will Evans, Louis Moholo and
Keith Tippett; gigs with Mick Beck's large group Feet Packets;
and a tour of England with Alex Maguire's nine-piece Cat o'Nine Tails.

Alan Wilkinson has been invited to play in Derek Bailey's
Company on a number of occasions, firstly in 1987 on a tour of Switzerland and Italy
with Steve Noble, Barre Phillips and Ernst Reijseger; again in 1988 at the ICA in London
in a Company Week which included Dennis Palmer, LaDonna Smith, Gregg Bendian and Milo Fine; and in
1993 he helped organise and participated in Company Week at the Place Theatre with, among others,
Don Byron, Robyn Schulkowski, Ikue Mori and Phil Minton.
Other associations have included a stint with the John Law Quartet; playing with the
London group Ya Basta; Real Time, with artist Gina Southgate and drummer Mark Sanders
joined occasionally by Maggie Nicols or Susanna Ferrar. He has also played solo gigs
since 1991.

Alan Wilkinson is probably best known as a member of the take no prisoners Hession/
Wilkinson/Fell trio formed with the addition of Simon Fell to the
longstanding duo in 1989. Though perhaps correctly typified as a high energy power trio
- starting loud and then opening the throttles - and the recorded evidence goes some way
to support this proposition, there are not only areas of respite in the playing but also
an interest in fitting the group into new situations. For example, in 1996 a short UK tour
took place in June with US guitarist Joe Morris (with a CD forthcoming on Incus); and in
November the trio appeared in an incendiary, ear-numbing, exhausting and hugely enjoyable
interchange with Derek Bailey at the annual Termite Festival in Leeds: a gig that the
organiser's attempted unsuccessfully and on several occasions to end prematurely
(this being Sunday night in a pub in the UK), finally resorting to flashing
the room lights and talking loudly; Derek Bailey, having been sat head down in concentration for the
uninterrupted 40 minutes of the second piece then looking up blinking, seemingly surprised at the near panic.
The following night, Wilkinson and Fell undertook a four date tour of the UK with a quartet completed by Peter Brötzmann
and Willi Kellers, reprising a similar tour by the same musicians in 1994.